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Speeches

People taking on the responsibility of governance will experience the beneﬁts of greater civic maturity individually and as members of society. In point of fact, the structure of representative government, giving power away on Election Day to a gaggle of politicians, denies the people the opportunity to mature by taking responsibility for their own actions. Representative government’s structure maintains the people in civic adolescence.

HIV/AIDS is a problem that has existed for two decades in most of our communities. At this point, every country in the world has reported a case of HIV/AIDS. Never in history has there arisen such a widespread and fundamental threat to human development as HIV/AIDS.

Human development is inherently linked to good governance. The pursuit of the objective of human development as a critical element in any national strategic development plan is recommended because of the overwhelmingly positive impact it would have on national development and on the lives of our people.

The essence of love is to reach out without hesitation or reservation to embrace one another despite our religious beliefs and traditions, despite the current conflicts to somehow transcend ideology and religion, and become the people that God, Yahweh, Allah has called us to be.

To appreciate how Islam approaches the question of peace, one has only to consider a few elementary facts about Islam. Peace and Islam are derived from the same root and may be considered synonymous. One of God’s names is Peace. The concluding words of the daily prayers of every Muslim are words of peace. The greeting of Muslims when they return to God is peace. The daily salutations among the Muslims are expressions of peace. The adjective “Muslim” means, in a sense, peaceful.

We would do well to reﬂect on the question of whether the “clash of civilizations” that Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington argued could be the fate of humanity in the twenty-ﬁrst Christian century is already upon us. According to Professor Bassam Tibi, a devout Muslim and professor of international relations at the University of Göttingen, the “clash of civilizations” is both real and dangerous.

In August of 2000, Rev. Dr. Sun Myung issued a clear policy speech at the United Nations, outlining concrete proposals well in advance of the current descent into violence and military response. This speech called for a permanent multi-faith body in the United Nations - corresponding to the political representation in the General Assembly, and further introduced the doctrine of peace zones, by which many current religiously charged flash points can be administered and gradually resolved without violence.

Virtually every UN conference addresses contentious provisions regarding the role of the natural family, childhood autonomy, and children’s sexual rights. As these provisions are negotiated, the words that are used—the norms that are created—may become legally binding in the very near future. Each internationally negotiated document builds upon language used and objectives sought in preceding conferences and—as a result—forms an important link in a chain that inevitably encircles the international community.

Should people bother to marry or is procreation just fine? Should marriage only be between one man and one woman or is it okay to have other configurations? Should sex be reserved for married people, or is it just another physical activity that should be conducted responsibly and safely by consenting adults?

President Bush’s Millennium Challenge Account initiative represents a bold new approach to what we have been working on for many years. We have seen success, but we have also learned that if political will is lacking in recipient countries, and if their policy structures are such that individual initiative to invest and create jobs is discouraged, then development is slow to nonexistent. Therefore, MCA represents an opportunity for the US development community, public and private, to focus on performance as the base on which assistance programs are built.

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We are an international and interreligious network of individuals and organizations, including representatives from religion, government, civil society and the private sector dedicated to achieving world peace. UPF supports the work of the United Nations, particularly in the areas of interfaith peacebuilding, peace education, and the strengthening of marriage and family.

Universal Peace Federation is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations We support and promote the work of the United Nations and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals